This Puppy With Only Two Legs Got a 3D-Printed Wheelchair
Meet Tumbles, a 6-week-old terrier mix born with only two legs. When he was two weeks old, Tumbles was taken to the Friends of the Shelter Dogs (FOSD) in Athens, Ohio, a nonprofit that rescues and provides shelter for dogs in need.
There, a little Internet luck came in: An FOSD volunteer posted information about Tumbles on Facebook, and a couple approached the shelter, wanting to help. They came up with the idea of developing a bespoke wheelchair to help him get around. They created a design and contacted the Ohio University Innovation Center to help create it using their 3D printer.
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Tumbles, a terrier mix puppy, was born with only two legs. (Photo: Crystal Richmond/FOSD)
The wheelchair took about 14 hours to print.
The shelter later shared a video and pictures of Tumbles being fitted into his new wheelchair on Facebook, which quickly went viral.
Tumbles is strapped into his 3D-printed wheelchair for the first time. (Photo: Crystal Richmond/FOSD)
Joe Jollick, lab director of the Innovation Center, told ABC News he is thrilled with the results. “Everyone is real enthusiastic,” Jollick said. “Our main goal [was] to get him off the ground. The second thing is to get him used to it.”
The Innovation Center has pledged to make Tumbles’s wheels for the rest of his life, and he was recently fitted for his second set.
FOSD board president Angela Marx told BuzzFeed that Tumbles is not currently up for adoption and that it’s likely that his foster mother, who has “fallen in love with him,” will adopt him.
To find out more about Tumbles and FOSD, visit their website.
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